OF TOMORROW: Expecting The Expected In The Eligibility Of President Edgar Chagwa Lungu

On 2nd November 2018, while in Solwezi at the Airport, President ECL told the media that there will be chaos in the country if the Constitutional Court ruled against him in the eligibility case.

Considered also, are the statements that have been issued by various NGOs aligned to PF threatening citizens not to question tomorrow’s scheduled judgement on President Lungu’s eligibility to stand again for a third term in 2021.

The Lawyers body in Zambia, LAZ, are blindly in support of President Lungu’s third term contest of Presidential office taking into account that the earlier statement made by the President was clear about “chaos” in the country.

On 4thDecember 2018, these were the words coming from the Presidential spokesperson Amos Chanda over court judgment tomorrow:

“He (ECL) is the President elected for five years, between now and 2021. This is not a decision that takes him to 2026, whichever the ruling, there will be a Presidential election in 2021 and the winner of the 2021 elections will rule from 2021 to 2026, so it’s just the exaggeration of issues and unnecessary portrayal of events. There is no prejudicial positions from the President. The debate has been going on, the opposition say the President is not qualified…they are talking, members of the ruling party are saying the President is qualified but outside of that, the judges will make a decision.”

Constitutionally, Article 106(3) of the Laws of Zambia says that “a person who has TWICE held office as president is not eligible”. For this reason, President ECL has held offices twice thus making him constitutionally not eligible.

WHAT THEN WILL PEOPLE EXPECT TOMORROW?

The people of Zambia are expecting what they already know in a country where the judiciary is run by the ruling party. Definitely, threats from President Lungu will payoff tomorrow because of fear for chaos and other forms of violences.

With some NGOs jumping the CHECKS AND BALANCES provisional boundary to judging the eligibility of President Lungu, some explanations on the period for A TERM IN OFFICE AS BEING FIVE YEARS will be used as defence.

At last, President ECL will be deamed ELIGIBLE to contest 2021 elections on the PF tickets. The results are already known and the judgment has already been served to favour President Edgar Chagwa Lungu.